Toran Apart The Legend Of Joy Division

One of Britain’s most influential bands is now the subject of a compelling new film. Paul Lester talks to Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner - and to film director Anton Corbijn

Three decades after they formed and almost 30 years after their post-punk peak, Joy Division still cast a giant shadow over the music scene. There are reissues of their albums on their way, as well as a documentary, a major film called Control, and scores of bands, both British (Editors, Bloc Party) and American (Interpol, The Killers, whose version of JD’s Shadowplay closes the movie) making music under their influence.

The enhanced version of their three monolithic albums (Unknown Pleasures, Closer, the half-live Still), with their brilliant pristine production courtesy the late, great Martin Hannett, have been remastered by the surviving members, and the documentary, simply titled Joy Division and produced by New Order’s US manager Tom Atencio, is on its way.

Then there’s Control. Based in part on Ian Curtis’ widow Deborah’s 1994 biography Touching From A Distance and directed by former NME photographer Anton Corbijn (who took the famous image of the band in a subway passage, with only Curtis facing the camera, and later shot a video for JD’s Atmosphere), it’s been filmed in stark black and white. It tells the story of Joy Division’s emergence from Manchester and rise to prominence as the signal band of their era, and focuses on …

by Paul Lester
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